All Articles Tagged "catfish"

The new season of “Catfish” features an episode highlighting a young man by the name of Jerez Coleman aka Kidd Cole, who was exposed on the show for running an Internet scam. As a part of the scam, Jerez convinced several people that he was the youngest producer on Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music label and convinced them to foot the bill for lavish amenities by promising them jobs in the music industry. As it turns out, Jerez is actually the son of Lil’ Mo’s ex-husband, Gus Stone. The “R&B Divas: LA” star recently took to Instagram to address the episode and expressed sympathy for her stepson.

“Big shoutout to my ‘estranged’ SON @colepushaz,” Mo wrote. “I cannot sit here and LOL and point fingers at a young man that has the SAME FATHER as my daughters Heaven and Godiss Love.”

Mo went on to say that she was hurt after witnessing the “Catfish” episode because it reminded her of Jerez’s challenging upbringing.

“I saw the MTV special ‘Catfish’ and my heart was saddened. I laughed at first because i was like ‘Heaven, ya brother on TV.’ BUT the fact is, i literally saw this YOUNG MAN raise HIMSELF!! His grandmother helped, but he wasn’t her responsibility. Numerous payments was sent to the child support account that I paid out of my pocket. He was raised without a ‘YOU know what’ !! In these streets, get it how you LIVE IT!! He is NOT a bad guy. He needs guidance. I truly hope he makes his way in the music industry, which is way more cruel than the real world. P.S. I Love you Jerez!! Never give up ok!!

Love always, MOm”

Mo’s relationship with Jerez appears to be a distant one, as she admits she hasn’t seen him in years and that she was very shocked to see him on “Catfish.”

“I was very surprised,” she recently told The Jasmine Brand. “I had heard he was producing and working with Jaden Smith. When I asked his father was it true, he replied that he was crazy. I said that he got it honest.”

“When I saw the nature of what Kidd Cole’s episode entailed, my heart dropped,” she continued. “I know some of his living situation from the past, because I am no longer connected to his father and he is of age, I have no jurisdiction to take care of him. But I know this kid has had a HARD LIFE. But he is a good kid. He just needs a chance.”

Interestingly, Mo also adds that she recently took Jerez’s father off of child support and instructed him to go take care of his “lost son.” This has got to be the most random reality TV family connection ever.

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The Catfish phenomena is getting scary at this point. Far beyond bruised egos and love yearnings, lives are being threatened. Nineteen year old Marissa Williams is in jail for trying to get the person who she thought was a stranger to kill her family members. What Marissa didn’t know was that the person she was talking to was the aunt she was trying to have murdered.

According to AL.com, Marissa has lived with her aunt since April of this year. Their relationship went a little sour when Marissa’s aunt noticed her niece’s social media habits. Not only did she talk to different people online, she made a practice to inviting them, complete strangers, to her aunt’s house.

Marissa’s aunt asked her to stop doing this and did not allow her to go to parties with strangers. And Marissa, being so mature, blocked her aunt on Facebook so she could no longer monitor her activity.

In response, Marissa’s aunt decided to create a fake Facebook profile. She became a man named Tre “Topdog” Ellis. Marissa added Tre as a friend and the two started chatting. The aunt wanted to see how her niece behaved online and teach her a lesson about speaking to stingers online. But she ended up getting so much more than that.

Marissa started talking her aunt, who she thought was Tre “Topdog” Ellis, giving him all types of personal information like her phone number and home address. She asked him to come over to the house and get drunk with her. And she offered him sex if he would pay her $50 phone bill.

And it only got worse. Days later she told the “man” that her family had upset her and she was ready to leave Alabama. She asked Tre if he would come and kidnap her and take her away from her aunt’s home. And then she said, if any of her family members tried to stop him, he could shoot and kill them.

The words took a more sinister turn as they became increasingly more intricate. The AL writes: According to the court files, she told the fictional man how to get into her aunt’s bedroom so he could kill her and the woman’s fiance first, then she asked him to shoot her cousin and the family dog on the way out. Williams allegedly planned to pack her things in his car while ‘Tre’ murdered her family.

When Marissa’s aunt read this she called the police and asked for help.

When deputies showed up at the aunt’s home they interviewed Williams and she admitted to writing those things. But she apologized saying she didn’t really mean for anyone to be killed. She was arrested and taken to the county jail where she was charged with solicitation of murder. Marissa is still in jail with a $30,000 bond.

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Merriam-Webster has announced the newest terms to be added to its pages. Words like “hashtag,” “selfie” and “tweep” have entered the big book of words, showing how technology continues to influence society.

Another word that joining the lexicon is “catfish,” which M-W says ” refers to a person who sets up a false social networking profile for deceptive purposes.” The definition also specifically calls out the popular documentary that inspired the new definition, saying the term was “popularized by the documentary and television series of the same name and by last year’s strange story of football player Manti Te’o’s nonexistent girlfriend.”

Catfish producers and creators Ariel (Rel) Schulman, Henry Joost, and Nev Schulman reacted to this news stating, “Seeing this new definition in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is not only an honor for us, it is a reflection of how our experience in the film has now become a universal one, shared by people all over the world.”

Merriam-Webster’s editor at large Peter Sokolowski told consumers these word choices along with 150 others were entered because, “so many of these new words show the impact of online connectivity to our lives and livelihoods. Tweep, selfie, and hashtag refer to the ways we communicate and share as individuals. Words like crowdfunding, gamification, and big data show that the Internet has changed business in profound ways.”

Other additions include “freegan,” “turducken” and “crowdfunding.”

Are these words a part of your every day lingo? The latest edition of Merriam-Webster is on bookshelves (and online), right now!

I’m not aiming to be MadameNoire’s expert on all things MTV’s Catfish, but after writing last week’s Plenty Of Fish: Why Are People Still Being “Catfished”, an episode aired that was a doozy. Wednesday’s episode featured “Antwane and Tony” a story of a couple who met by what today would be seen as the unconventional and dated “party line”. The last time I heard about the party line I was telling one of my friends in high school she would end up a Lifetime movie by meeting guys she had met randomly through a hotline. Antwane is anti-social media so he sends Max and Nev out into the rough streets of Cincinnati with only a phone number to lead the way. The guys’ gangsta comes out as they knock on random folks doors whose addresses are linked to the number asking for “Tony”, the man Antwane has been conversing and falling in love with for three years.

Turns out the real “Tony” is Antwane’s cousin Carmen who can get James Earl Jones bass in her voice on command and is seeking revenge on Antwane for referring to her as a “fat a** Kelly Price” in front of their family back in the day. Max and Nev, tired of being taken for fools and risking their safety patrolling the hood get completely out of character and call Carmen on her cruelty to the point where the producer has to pull them aside and remind them to focus on the purpose of their show.

It is then that Carmen has a moment of honesty and reveals that her cruel catfishing ways are partially due to a desperate need to be on TV. She remarks:

“The biggest liars work in the biggest companies.”

When Max asks why she wants to be known for such negative behavior, Carmen plainly states:

“For my five minutes of fame. When you approach someone with an opportunity they’ll want to do anything just to be on TV for that moment.”

“People on TV make the world look different to people that’s not.”

Most of us probably wouldn’t spend three years catfishing our close cousin just to be on an MTV show, but let’s be honest: Fame isn’t what it used to be. It’s more tangible than ever and thanks to social media like Instagram and Youtube it doesn’t take much to become “instafamous” or literally become famous overnight. There’s no longer the red tape of being in the right location or linking up with the right people. As long as you have a cellphone signal all it takes is the right action and the right viewer to take someone from their bathroom mirror to BET.

This could be a good thing except for the fact that media tends to glorify the most dramatic, harsh and negative things. People are no longer famous for being talented, they’re famous for fighting, making sex tapes with celebrities and booty shots. The bad news is that fame isn’t lasting as long as it used to. With the public’s attention span growing shorter and shorter, it’s taking more effort to make a lasting impression. We are no longer encouraging folks to be good at something we’re just encouraging them to look good and shock the hell out of us or make us laugh. If you look at some of the most popular celebs in our culture from Miley Cyrus to Rihanna, it’s all based on wild behavior and them showing their bathing suit parts, not on any actual real talent they might have. Seriously, when’s the last time you said to yourself, “Rihanna was singing her behind off on that track!” But just this morning I came across thisarticle of her grabbing her breast at a basketball game. 146 people have already tweeted it.

I’m not saying celebrities are to blame, I think society as a whole perpetuates the mindset that fame makes everything better. Those who lead the most questionable lives are in the headlines the most and as a result they seem to be more successful, at least financially and socially. It’s getting to the point where viewers figure if they can’t be the sexiest, they’ll be the craziest. If they can’t be the craziest, they’ll be the cruelest and so on. As longs as it gets them more followers, more likes, or the ultimate goal: Five minutes on reality TV, that it must mean something, or that they actually matter in this world.

So to answer the question in my last article, why are people still getting catfished? It’s because peoples’ need to be famous, liked or followed is at an all-time high and they’re completely missing the point that there’s more to life then what’s on TV or on your cell phone. Carmen was right, people on TV do make things look different, but it’s because most of the time those things aren’t real. And that’s the biggest catfish of all: the fact that reality TV is filled with so much fakeness. No one’s really talented. No one’s really real. And the sooner we begin to glorify the best in people and what they’re actually good at, the sooner we can get back to being authentically entertained.

Toya Sharee is a community health educator and parenting education coordinator who has a passion for helping young women build their self-esteem and make well-informed choices about their sexual health. She also advocates for women’s reproductive rights and blogs about everything from beauty to love and relationships. Follow her on Twitter @TheTrueTSharee or visit her blog, Bullets and Blessings.

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“Catfish” has had two seasons of some of the most outrageous reality on TV and we can’t wait for the new episode to air tonight. Online dating can be dangerous and we’ve got 15 reasons why you should be sure you know who you’re talking to before things go any further, thanks to the lessons we’ve learned from these Catfish episodes.

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Last week’s episode of Catfish had the internets going nuts. If you recall, Keyonnah thought she was in a relationship with rapper Bow Wow. After the episode aired on MTV, Bow Wow issued a very arrogant, unsympathetic response. In the midst of fawning over himself, he did manage to invite Keyonnah and Dee Pimpin, the woman who was pretending to be Bow Wow, to “106 & Park.”

They had that meeting yesterday on the show. And it was quite entertaining.

From the moment she hit the stage, Bow Wow presented her with flowers and a hug that Keyonnah let linger. After being embarrassed on national television, she was not shy.

“We flew you in, we did the hair up. We got your makeup right. That’s how a real fella is supposed to treat a lady.”

Keyonnah explained why she’s been such a Bow Wow fan since she was 9 years old. It was almost too hard to watch as she listed all the things that contribute to Bow Wow’s appeal. His eyes, his hair when he had. She said she likes that he is “out here and ’bout it.” And Bow soaked up every last bit of it.

“You really thought that was your boy?”

She said she was skeptical at first but then when Dee Pimpin started sending money, she assumed he was the one.

And then… Dee Pimpin’ came out boppin’ like she was accepting an award that day. After Bow Wow told her not to scam any women in New York, he asked Dee why she decided to imitate him.

Bow Wow: “It was so many celebrities that you could have been. It’s a lot of other guys in the game who have strong, female fan bases as well. You could have been Trey, you could have been Drizzy Drake, you could have been Chris Brown. But you picked Bow Weezy.

Dee: Bow Wizzle!

Bow Wow: What made you say that I’m gon’ be Bow Wow?

Dee: A lot of kids they called me you, when I was younger. Cuz I had the afro and I was doing music at a younger age. So I kinda fell into your path and tried to walk your steps.

Then they played this cute little trivia game where Dee Pimpin’ answered questions about Bow. Check out the videos on the next page and then the video of Dee and Keyonnah answered questions from Instagram followers.

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If you’re a fan of MTV’s hit show, “Catfish,” then you know that last night’s episode was a doozy. The short of it is that a woman, Keyonnah, believed she was in an online relationship with rapper Bow Wow. Now, before we start wondering about homegirl’s intelligence level, there were a few signs that could lead a naive and desperate person to believe that Bow Wow really was talking to her. For instance, “Bow Wow” messaged her after she left a note on his Facebook fan page and throughout the course of their relationship sent her $10k. Perhaps if Keyonnah followed the news, she would have known that Bow Wow could barely afford to make his child support payments. So there was no way he should have been sending a random fan, a stranger $10k.

So by the end of the episode, Keyonnah meets the person who’s been masquerading as Bow Wow. And lo and behold it’s a woman, a lesbian, named “Dee Pimpin.” Crazy, right? (If you haven’t seen the episode, you MUST watch.) The craziest thing about the meeting was that Dee believed she and Keyonnah would still have a chance. I mean, sure she wasn’t a man and had lied to her but she had a really life-like, lambskin dildo that she was gon’ use to turn Keyonnah out. LOL you can not make this stuff up.

Needless to say, Keyonnah is devastated. Not only did Dee lie about the nature of their relationship, she had her male cousin, Larry speak to her on the phone so she could be listening to a male voice. She was embarrassed, betrayed and disgusted by the whole situation. And even though we, the viewing audience, all knew that Bow Wow was not going to be on the other side of the door, I still felt for her. I mean dude was her childhood crush, c’mon.

So after the episode airs, Bow Wow and BET, in a move to rightly capitalize off of the episode release a video reaction to the episode centered all around him. I’m including the video, but let me just pull out a few highlights.

“The new thing is this “Catfish” situation. Let’s talk about how somebody is actually impersonating me. Now, first of all that’s a hard thing to do. Just look at me, you can’t impersonate this. These eyes, these ain’t contacts. You can’t buy these and put these in your eyes to think that you’re Bow Wow. These tattoos on my body, these is permanent. You can’t draw these on. It’s only one. It can only be one, not two but one. And that’s me. So how do I feel about being “Catfished?” Well, I feel honored. It’s dope and it’s flattering when someone wants to be you. And not only do they want to be you. In their mind, they are you. That’s crazy. But I like it. It’s free promo for myself, for BET, for ‘106 & Park’.”

Then he invites Keyonnah and Dee Pimpin to come to “106 & Park” and meet him and discuss the whole thing.

“But we gon’ do it on my time though, on our network though and on our show. I mean ya’ll did take all our pictures from our show and used them. You want to holla at Bow Weezy, come to 106. “Catfish,” it is what it is.”

*Exasperated sigh.*

I’m sorry, was I the only one expecting a little compassion from Bow Wow instead of him taking this comical, yet sad situation to further promote himself? Did he not realize that he was not the one being catfished? Where was the message to the girl who actually believed she was meeting him, who had been a fan of his since childhood? Did he have any sympathy for her? Did he feel sorry that someone would use his image and images of his daughter to take advantage of another person? I guess not. Instead, he spent far too many seconds talking about his eyes and tattoos.

Baby, bye!

I’m not gonna lie, I’ve seen Bow Wow up close and homeboy, though severely short (like 5’2), is very easy on the eyes. But listening to this video nearly turns my stomach. He sounds like he never matured past the days when girls were throwing their training bras on stage during those Scream tours. And I get it, you got a lot of play back in the day; and maybe still to this day, but where is the humility? You need it.

And on another note, can we talk about this grown man’s lack of knowledge about the company he actually works for? He seems to have taken issue with the fact that MTV used images from “106 & Park.” That’s right, they did. But Bow, I need you to do some research. Both MTV and BET are owned by Viacom. They didn’t steal anything. They just moved those images over from one server to the next. Stop it.

Bow Wow’s only saving grace is that perhaps he didn’t see the full episode and therefore couldn’t comprehend the devastation and embarrassment Keyonnah felt when she realized her online love was not the man she envisioned, she wasn’t even a man. Perhaps after he’s seen the episode, if he hasn’t seen it, he’ll have something more to actually say to her and not continue talking about himself.

Check out the video on the next page.

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It was heartbreak and cruelty on the latest episode of “Catfish: The TV Show” when 18-year-old Aaliyah finally met her online love of the past 10 months. For nearly a year, she’d been in a relationship with Alicia, who only lived 70 blocks away. But the two had never met.

Over the course of their relationship, Aaliyah had sent Alicia a total of $600, plus an iPhone. She also paid for the phone’s service, despite the fact that Aaliyah was struggling financially herself. So Nev Schulman and Max Joseph did what they do and discovered that at least Alicia was who she said she was. She just wasn’t in love with Aaliyah. She wasn’t even a lesbian.

“All I have to say, girl, is if I wanted to meet you, we stay in the same city! I would’ve made that happen,” Alicia told Aaliyah. She admitted that it had all been a con to get money out of Aaliyah. When Aaliyah was struggling to understand what she was hearing, Alicia started laughing in her face. “Oh my God,” she said. “It was a lie. What?”

“Do you know you ruined my life?” Aaliyah asked, but Alicia only laughed harder. After that, Aaliyah broke down in tears while Alicia continued to laugh.

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ABOUT THIS EPISODE Who doesn’t love a great wedding? Especially when the Bride-to-be looks like a million bucks. We’ve surprised one lucky Bride to be with the ultimate wedding makeover. You’re in for a treat as this fab beauty story unfolds on “I Dream of a Glam Wedding.” In this episode, you get to hear the story behind proposal of Nina and Ed and she will also receive a hair/make-up consultation by a celebrity hairstylist/makeup artist. Make sure you watch the full video to find out how you can win a $500 gift card for your own hair and makeup products.

ABOUT THE BRIDE-TO-BE Nina Kenny is a 28 year old Private Voice Instructor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Currently engaged to 33 year old Edward McCray who recently proposed to Nina on her 28th birthday. To here full story of how they met and more make sure you watch the video above.

ABOUT THE CELEBRITY HAIRSTYLIST Pat Sumpter Davis has styled numerous celebrity personalities such as Gayle King, Tamron Hall, Nene Leakes, and Tamar Braxton. She recently founded Vanity Mane, luxury line of hair extensions, wigs, and accessories. As one of the leading voices in the beauty industry, Pat’s experience and knowledge has allowed her to identify the void in the market therefore presenting a product to customers that she can stand behind. For more information visit: http://www.vanitymaneextensions.com/

ABOUT THE CELEBRITY MAKEUP ARTIST Patricia Ambroise is a born and bred New York Celebrity Makeup Artist. Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue Italia, Essence, GQ, Ink Magazine, and Ebony. She has worked with companies such as K-Mart, NIKE, and Eylure USA Cosmetics. Her work with celebrities include Ne-Yo, Flo Rida, J. Cole, Trey Songz, Bridget Kelly, Nina Sky, Wynter Gordon, Big Sean, Rihanna, Spike Lee, just to name a few. For more information visit: http://www.patriciaambroisemakeup.com/

The thirst is real out here. And just when you though Manti T’eo was the only famous face tricked by Internet trolls, it seems that even Hollywood actors can easily get caught up. Just ask Criminal Minds star, Thomas Gibson.

You’ve probably also seen Gibson’s face as Greg on the sitcom Dharma & Greg, but he’s known these days for playing quiet-spoken but damn-good-at-his-job FBI detective Aaron Hotchner on the CBS hit Criminal Minds. According to TMZ, the actor, married and 51, was contacted by a young woman online two years ago. Using the picture of a half-dressed to pretend it was her, instead of just saying “Thanks!” and going about his business, Gibson started communicating regularly with the woman.

As time passed she sent more explicit pictures (of the same nameless adult video star) and videos to him, and in turn, he sent her pictures and the above video too. In it, Gibson can be seen in a hot tub talking about a whole lot of nothing and doing so quietly, probably because his wife was somewhere nearby wondering what the hell he was doing…(and yes he has clothes on by the way). By the end of the video you’re just shaking your head in embarrassment at the guy for getting played and playing himself so much.

Anywho, according to TMZ, the woman, who still didn’t want to be named or send out a real photo of herself to TMZ, grew feelings for Gibson. But he somehow figured out that she wasn’t who she claimed to be and that her photos were not truly of herself. Gibson ended up having his lawyer send a letter to the woman a few months ago telling her to stop contacting him, and well, she sent this video to TMZ as payback. When a woman is scorned, she’ll embarrass your life, but then again, he probably should have kept his camera, and his steamy hot tub scenes to himself. Dude…you’re married.

Check out the video above for yourself and let us know what you think of the actor getting caught getting “Catfished.”